Daily Archives: August 16, 2007

“CRAWFORD, Texas – One of the president’s daughters is getting married. President Bush and first lady Laura Bush announced Thursday that their daughter, Jenna, is engaged to Henry Hager of Virginia.
No wedding date has been set, said Mrs. Bush’s press secretary, Sally McDonough.
Jenna, one of the president’s twin daughters, became engaged to Hager, the son of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Hager of Richmond, Va., on Wednesday.”

And who is the lucky fellow? World O Crap has been tracking him for some time and on Tuesday November 8, 2005, reported —

“Henry, the son of tobacco heir John Hager (the former lieutenant governor of Virginia, and a current Bush appointee to the Department of Education), was a WH intern who worked for Karl Rove (uh oh!) about three years ago. After that, he joined the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. He was described as “smart” and “ambitious,” but as of early this year, nobody was sure what he was doing. (Sources told the Wash Post that he worked “in administration circles” in some unidentified capacity, while the NY Daily News sources reported that he wasn’t “really doing anything” except for maybe studying for the GMAT so he could follow his future father-in-law’s example and attend Harvard Business school.)
In February, Laura Bush declared on national TV that Henry wasn’t “a serious boyfriend.” (Which has to hurt if you’re an ambitious young man who has, since August 2004, been dating the President’s daughter at the instruction of your mentor Karl Rove.)
Since then, we spared him nary a thought.
However, Henry made the news again this month when he appeared on the official guest list for the White House dinner held in honor of Prince Charles and Not-Princess Camilla. (As the UK’s Daily Mail put it, “Strapping young Jenna Bush attended with her boyfriend,” and “Vice-President Cheney’s rather bow-legged daughter turned up with her girlfriend.”)
So, we did some Googling to find out what Henry’s been up to. And it turns out that when he isn’t visiting trendy watering holes with Jenna, he’s a “Policy Analyst” at the Department of Commerce. I don’t know exactly which policies he analyzes, but he does stand-in for his boss, Carlos Gutierrez (the Secretary of the Commerce) at meetings of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities” [Insert jokes here]

However the canny Style Weekly drew a bead on Henry back in January 26, 2005.

“If Henry and Jenna met during the campaign, they didn’t necessarily date. On Election Night in November, according to a local Republican insider, Jenna Bush appeared to have another male companion by her side. But by last week’s inaugural events, they were being spotted together.

Jenna Bush, 23, is anything but a wallflower.”

[Insert jokes here]

“After graduating from the University of Texas with a degree in English in May, she stepped up her efforts to help her father’s presidential campaign. She and her twin sister, Barbara, were all the rage at inaugural parties last week. Hip designer Badgley Mischka created Jenna’s inaugural ball gown, made of an emerald silk crepe with metallic leather banding and jeweled insets.”

Are you sure it’s not insects ?

“Last week, a spokesman for the first lady even had to put a lid on speculation that Jenna was engaged. The buzz started when Jenna was pictured at inaugural events wearing jewelry on the ring finger of her left hand. Engagement ring? No, the Associated Press reported Jan. 20. Bush spokesman Gordon Johndroe told the AP, “She’s still single,” and was not engaged or secretly wed.

So what’s Henry Hager like? “He’s got his head on straight,” says one friend of the family. He’s a graduate of St. Christopher’s School and has collegiate good looks, according to a female account. Style was unable to reach him at his Arlington apartment.”

This proving he’s got his head on straight.

“Ann Gerhart, a staff writer for the Washington Post, reported last week that the Bush twins caught the eyes of many admirers during inaugural festivities. At a pre-inauguration party sponsored by the National Beer Wholesalers Assocation, Gerhart wrote, Jenna was spotted at the VIP bar ordering herself a vodka and tonic. She was watched like the celebrity she has become.”

ie. the Paris/Lindsay/ Brittany of the Beltway.

“Then, Gerhart wrote, just before Stephen Baldwin approached Jenna, there was a moment of romance: “By 11 p.m. she’s back at the bar, then back to the rail, smoking and sipping, while a young man caresses her hair and her back.”

which leads inevitabley to the question of what Not Jenna is going to do to top this.